A Pierce County jury this week found that the Bethel School District was negligent, but that its actions did not directly cause the death of a 10-year-old girl who died three years ago after suffering an asthma attack at Clover Creek Elementary School.

Fifth-grader Mercedes Mears died Oct. 7, 2008, and her parents, Jeanette and Michael Mears, sued the school district in 2009. In a prior legal claim against the district, filed before the suit, the parents had asked for $15 million.

Adults must understand that a child may not be able to self-administer an epi-pen! When I had to use it on my 12 year old I doubt she could have done it herself and even though I was not reacting it was difficult.

I will never understand why people do not call 911 sooner just to ask for advice in the case of allergies or asthma --- there are people that call 911 to ask for the time! I don't know if an ambulance is automatically sent but I do know that the paramedic was on the phone within 30 seconds of my calling 911.

Our school division pays for the ambulance to make sure that they are always called when needed regardless of the families' ability to pay for it.

_________________me: allergic to crustaceans plus environmental
teenager: allergic to hazelnuts, some other foods and environmental

More and more and more I am finding it more difficult to wrap my head around not just the backlash issue but the reluctance/hesitation towards allergy education/training/policy.....

Would we expect an adult to use a defibrillator on themselves? Then why should any person let alone a child be expected to save their own life. And I totally agree Walooet, when there are dozens of unnecessary 911 calls a day over trivial issues WHY on earth do people not call 911 if they are even a tiny bit unsure if a person's life is in distress?????

And come one, even with ZERO anaphylaxis training there was no common sense displayed in both these situations (Quebec and this poor child). Really, adults be it parents, teachers, strangers are just going to WATCH and do nothing????
My heart just breaks at the senselessness of these tragedies!! Who knows the outcome BUT these poor babies were given NO chance at all.

Two weeks ago, we had an incident in our neighbourhood where a young fellow (about 16) had fallen and was having some kind of seizure next to the sidewalk. A few of us saw, jumped out of our cars and immediately 2 people called 911. You just do that. Seeing others with 911, I ran so fast back back to my car to grab a blanket on the backseat. The poor kid was bashing his head on the concrete - you really couldn't hold him. The blanket made the difference.

This isn't to pat myself and the others on the back. We just did what we should do as adults in an emergency - we reacted, now. (The boy btw was ok, fyi. Sat up as the paramedics were arriving. Very confused, but they seemed to think he'd be ok and that it might have been diabetes-related.)

I expect a certain amount of denial on the part of an individual since it's part of the greiving process. Many of us go through that pretty quickly but what is with the denial of schools?
I have heard stories of schools:
-only allowing students to self carry for one year unless they demonstrate an anaphylaxis within that time.
-putting the responsibility for recognizing and treating a reaction squarely on the shoulders of a kindergarten student...my daughter was 3 when she started JK!
-food in lesson plans, dioramas made of food, shared cooking (and eating) events, procedural writing assignments detailing how to make a PB&J sandwich...
-Do the principals sign off on lesson plans? Are they aware of what is going on in there schools?
-Why is it OK to sign an attendance sheet, sit and be lectured to and then be considered competent to handle a life threatening medical emergency where literally seconds count? As educators, teachers must measure that students can demonstrate the knowledge they recieve. Why do we not ask this from the school when anaphylaxis training is offered?

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